It is getting harder to take time to write this blog! There is just so much keeping me busy that finding the time to put in an acceptable effort is difficult. That being said it has been another rather eventful week in China.
I will start with the rather sad, but nonetheless expected departure of Tyler yesterday for Canada. It is too bad that he did not suddenly decided to stay, but the Maple Leaf machine rolls on. I will always have Aliki from summer school…large sigh. That being said the new teachers continue to be pretty good as they are mostly great. That being said the ball hockey game we had on Wednesday pretty much created some solid judgements on people. Some of you are probably thinking: Wait, you judge an entire person based on ball hockey? Well yes… sometimes. The one guy who wouldn’t change the whole time. Not the first two games when we won both times 5-0 or when I unfortunately had to deal with him on my team. He not only won’t change, but he ignores the calls to go off, is super lazy, and doesn’t play defence. The stupid smirk on his face most of the rest of the day pretty much sums it up anyways. Harsh judgement, but I mean certain characteristics, likes being inconsiderate, lazy, arrogant, and just a good old fashion D, just really come out in ball hockey. That being said everyone else who played was great and confirmed my opinions of them generally. Especially the two goalies who sucked it up in 100 percent humidity at over 30 degrees.
That was a relatively unrelated to China tangent, but I am curious who else has weird scenario’s in which they possibly unfairly judge people. If you do feel free to comment on it.
This past week I was sworn into the Maple Leaf cult. Yes! All the new teachers had to go on stage and raise our right fist swear an oath and sign a board. It was ridiculously formal and Chinese. It was all done in front of the Maple Leaf Schools money maker Sherman Jen. After our oath Sherminator proceeded to give a 90 minute speech. This is basically is once annual address on the state of Maple Leaf. It was called the annual report and it had all the goals and adjustments for the future. This is where it gets hilariously communist. We are in year four of the fourth five year plan. Yes… five year plans. They actually still use that term still. Joseph Stalin still reaches from the grave! In this case it isn’t collectivization and the systematic starvation of Ukrainian peasants, but rather big numbers and lofty student numbers for a school. In another truly communist manner these goals are big and large and quantity over quality is the overriding factor. The next five year plan sounded fantastic! I mean Sherman by building more schools and having the teachers work harder that is magically going to make all these students speak English right? As much as Sherman critiqued the teachers and administrators, mostly the administrators, it really was just communist style waving. If these five year plan goals are not met, they will just make new ridiculous goals that won’t be met. Sherman won’t really be angry until the money stops. After his speech we got to witness the best Q and A section of all time.
“We will not have fifteen minutes for questions…” awkward pause “if there is any.” Sherman’s translator.
Bam! What is this? (A centre for ants?) Well actually a planted question or say four. The best part was watching the translator pull out the scripted response. It was all a rather funny ceremony that was nonetheless enjoyable because I was able to wear my suit again.
Other than that this week has been dedicated to Pro-D. Some has been beneficial, but some of it has simply been painful. There was a moment there where a sharing circle was forming and I had teacher college flashbacks. It has also been a chaotic week for planning as basically no one knows what courses they are teaching yet. At the moment I am teaching three blocks of SS 10 and one mystery block and my prep. We will see what happens to my mystery block, but hopefully it becomes a success room block. It was funny to learn that the department heads basically have a fantasy draft for staff. My English 10 block was removed after my department head fought to get me fully in the SS department. Rather amusing, but I still wish my schedule was finalized. Thankfully, after much work and stapling my first two weeks for SS are prepped and printed. Monday here we come.
It is also how funny it is here! I almost feel experienced! There are so many teachers fresh out of teachers college it is almost rather hilarious. I was never one to ask ridiculous questions, but definitely asked a lot. I know Mr. Murray considered my planning to be far too existent last. But yes some of the fresh faces here are making me feel like a savvy vet. I also learned today I could probably be a SS department head next year. Unwanted and terrifying. My current department head is awesome, she did so much work to make it a smooth start, but the deputy head, who is also a super nice guy, is simply place holding it for the time being.
Four of us went to Dalian last weekend. It was a fun day trip. Granted some pre-planning could have taken us a long way. Two of them were looking for the supposed real apple store in Dalian. Well it turns out is does not exist! We were very politely led to 6 or 7 apple reseller stores, many of which, if not most, definitely have fake Apple products. The trip brings up my one big set of travelling in a foreign country advice. AT ALL TIMES ASSUME ONE PERSON CAN SPEAK ENGLISH WITHIN HEARING, BUT EXPECT THAT NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. This way you do not walk around talking loudly and potentially say something disrespectful, etc. that is understood. While at the same time you do not fall into the trap of getting upset when no one speaks English for you. This sort of happened to one of us. There was a little “tourist information” both which did actually have that written in English. Naturally, no one in their spoke English. The sign was also in Russian, Korean, and Chinese. I can guarantee the only language in there was Chinese. Dalian is a huge city by Canadian standards, around three million, but by Chinese standards it is average. It is also not a highly important one. This further decreases the odds of English. When it became clear that they did not speak English at this tourist booth my one friend kind of had a mini freak out moment of frustration. Luckily I calmed her down with that phrase above and this simple point: How many tourist information booths in Canada could a Chinese person enter speaking Mandarin and using hand gestures get what they want? Not many. We are in f****** China. It is not there job to cater to us. We/anyone travelling anywhere has to figure it out. Still it was a fun day and we did get graciously led to 6 reselling stores!
I need to be off. Hope all is well. Again I am just curious who is actually reading this so I am going to ask for something. Could you please tell me which parts, of all the blogs, you have most enjoyed and what if anything I should write more about?
Cheers
I will start with the rather sad, but nonetheless expected departure of Tyler yesterday for Canada. It is too bad that he did not suddenly decided to stay, but the Maple Leaf machine rolls on. I will always have Aliki from summer school…large sigh. That being said the new teachers continue to be pretty good as they are mostly great. That being said the ball hockey game we had on Wednesday pretty much created some solid judgements on people. Some of you are probably thinking: Wait, you judge an entire person based on ball hockey? Well yes… sometimes. The one guy who wouldn’t change the whole time. Not the first two games when we won both times 5-0 or when I unfortunately had to deal with him on my team. He not only won’t change, but he ignores the calls to go off, is super lazy, and doesn’t play defence. The stupid smirk on his face most of the rest of the day pretty much sums it up anyways. Harsh judgement, but I mean certain characteristics, likes being inconsiderate, lazy, arrogant, and just a good old fashion D, just really come out in ball hockey. That being said everyone else who played was great and confirmed my opinions of them generally. Especially the two goalies who sucked it up in 100 percent humidity at over 30 degrees.
That was a relatively unrelated to China tangent, but I am curious who else has weird scenario’s in which they possibly unfairly judge people. If you do feel free to comment on it.
This past week I was sworn into the Maple Leaf cult. Yes! All the new teachers had to go on stage and raise our right fist swear an oath and sign a board. It was ridiculously formal and Chinese. It was all done in front of the Maple Leaf Schools money maker Sherman Jen. After our oath Sherminator proceeded to give a 90 minute speech. This is basically is once annual address on the state of Maple Leaf. It was called the annual report and it had all the goals and adjustments for the future. This is where it gets hilariously communist. We are in year four of the fourth five year plan. Yes… five year plans. They actually still use that term still. Joseph Stalin still reaches from the grave! In this case it isn’t collectivization and the systematic starvation of Ukrainian peasants, but rather big numbers and lofty student numbers for a school. In another truly communist manner these goals are big and large and quantity over quality is the overriding factor. The next five year plan sounded fantastic! I mean Sherman by building more schools and having the teachers work harder that is magically going to make all these students speak English right? As much as Sherman critiqued the teachers and administrators, mostly the administrators, it really was just communist style waving. If these five year plan goals are not met, they will just make new ridiculous goals that won’t be met. Sherman won’t really be angry until the money stops. After his speech we got to witness the best Q and A section of all time.
“We will not have fifteen minutes for questions…” awkward pause “if there is any.” Sherman’s translator.
Bam! What is this? (A centre for ants?) Well actually a planted question or say four. The best part was watching the translator pull out the scripted response. It was all a rather funny ceremony that was nonetheless enjoyable because I was able to wear my suit again.
Other than that this week has been dedicated to Pro-D. Some has been beneficial, but some of it has simply been painful. There was a moment there where a sharing circle was forming and I had teacher college flashbacks. It has also been a chaotic week for planning as basically no one knows what courses they are teaching yet. At the moment I am teaching three blocks of SS 10 and one mystery block and my prep. We will see what happens to my mystery block, but hopefully it becomes a success room block. It was funny to learn that the department heads basically have a fantasy draft for staff. My English 10 block was removed after my department head fought to get me fully in the SS department. Rather amusing, but I still wish my schedule was finalized. Thankfully, after much work and stapling my first two weeks for SS are prepped and printed. Monday here we come.
It is also how funny it is here! I almost feel experienced! There are so many teachers fresh out of teachers college it is almost rather hilarious. I was never one to ask ridiculous questions, but definitely asked a lot. I know Mr. Murray considered my planning to be far too existent last. But yes some of the fresh faces here are making me feel like a savvy vet. I also learned today I could probably be a SS department head next year. Unwanted and terrifying. My current department head is awesome, she did so much work to make it a smooth start, but the deputy head, who is also a super nice guy, is simply place holding it for the time being.
Four of us went to Dalian last weekend. It was a fun day trip. Granted some pre-planning could have taken us a long way. Two of them were looking for the supposed real apple store in Dalian. Well it turns out is does not exist! We were very politely led to 6 or 7 apple reseller stores, many of which, if not most, definitely have fake Apple products. The trip brings up my one big set of travelling in a foreign country advice. AT ALL TIMES ASSUME ONE PERSON CAN SPEAK ENGLISH WITHIN HEARING, BUT EXPECT THAT NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH. This way you do not walk around talking loudly and potentially say something disrespectful, etc. that is understood. While at the same time you do not fall into the trap of getting upset when no one speaks English for you. This sort of happened to one of us. There was a little “tourist information” both which did actually have that written in English. Naturally, no one in their spoke English. The sign was also in Russian, Korean, and Chinese. I can guarantee the only language in there was Chinese. Dalian is a huge city by Canadian standards, around three million, but by Chinese standards it is average. It is also not a highly important one. This further decreases the odds of English. When it became clear that they did not speak English at this tourist booth my one friend kind of had a mini freak out moment of frustration. Luckily I calmed her down with that phrase above and this simple point: How many tourist information booths in Canada could a Chinese person enter speaking Mandarin and using hand gestures get what they want? Not many. We are in f****** China. It is not there job to cater to us. We/anyone travelling anywhere has to figure it out. Still it was a fun day and we did get graciously led to 6 reselling stores!
I need to be off. Hope all is well. Again I am just curious who is actually reading this so I am going to ask for something. Could you please tell me which parts, of all the blogs, you have most enjoyed and what if anything I should write more about?
Cheers